What's a Dude Ranch, Dude

What’s a Dude Ranch, Dude

     “Come on everybody,” said Merin. “We are going to miss the AirShip. If we miss that we aren’t going to get there in time for our Offworld Flight.”

     By the time Merin finished that little speech the rest of his family was standing by him – and the family HoverCraft. After everyone got into the family HoverCraft they left their Island Home for the nearest AirShip port. From there they would take the AirShip to the Landing Zone. Where if everything went according to plan, and when did that ever happen, they would get there in time for their Offworld Flight.

     The Island Home was a small single family home. Each island was about two to five miles wide – and connected to the other home islands in their region of the planet of Porgial. There was about two thousand regions on Porgial and around one hundred thousand island homes per region. The individuals on Porgial lived on the only large land mass on the planet. Which was were all the business and entertainment was located.

     Merin’s family got to the AirShip in plenty of time. But it was the AirShip that almost made them miss their flight offworld. The AirShip malfunctioned right after lift-off. It was still able to fly them to the Landing Zone – but they had to do it at one-tenth the normal speed.

<<<<*>>>>

     “We are finally on our way to a real Texas Dude Ranch,” said klire. The Merin family had a MiniHouse all to themselves on that StarShip. Everyone family had one on there. So did the individuals. Only theirs was a Series of Rooms.

     “What is a Texas Dude Ranch? I’ve never heard any of those words before,” said their third child jicca.

     “I don’t know,” said Merin. “The Orliam family went there a few months ago. They said they had a great time there.”

     “There are animals you can ride,” said Klire. “Some animals you can learn how to take care of. The place is supposed to be very beautiful with lots of trees, plants, flowers and food that you have never seen or tasted before.”

     “What kind of food?” That time it was the first child, Billom, who asked.

     “All kinds,” said Merin. “Whatever you want they probably have – but a little different.”

     “Like what? You know there’s a lot of foods I can’t eat,” said the fourth child Heggic.

     “I forgot all about that,” Klire said as she picked up some Papers talking about their destination. “I’m sure there’s something here that’s different you can eat.” Klire looked at the Papers a few seconds then said, “Here’s something. It’s called fish.”

     “What’s a fish?” That was the second child, Yealla, who asked that question.”

     Merin had to think about that or a minute. “A fish is an animal that live in the water on most planets.”

     “Where did a Texas Dude Ranch come from? Did it come from the planet we are going to?” Once again Jicca asked those questions.

     “I don’t know where it came from – but I don’t think it’s from the planet of Nillick.” Which was the planet they were headed for. “Texas it probably the planet the dude ranches came from. The dude ranches are probably the names of their…” Merin suddenly stopped talking. After a few second he said, “I don’t know what a dude ranch is.”

     “Don’t look at me,” said Klire. “I don’t know what it is either. Whatever it is we are about to find out. We are almost there.”

<<<<*>>>>

     Nillick was very beautiful from above. Merin’s family could see it from the Video Monitor in their MiniHouse. There was video output from all over the bottom of the StarShip. Everyone on board could see multiple angles of Nillick.

     The StarShip didn’t land on Nillick. It just hovered about a mile above it. That StarShip didn’t hover over just one SpacePort. Nillick only had six SpacePorts over the whole planet. The StarShip hovered over all of them. It also hovered over the rest of the planet too.

     That StarShip let passenger off wherever they needed to be. The Merin family was toward the end of that passenger list. The got on the platform and descended to the Texas Dude Ranch below. If someone was looking up it looked like the Merin family was floating down to the ground. That’s because the lift was completely invisible.

     As they descended down the Merin family could see their destination. It didn’t look too bad from up there. Only when they reached the ground did they really see what it looked like. “This doesn’t look anything like the Papers they gave us,” said Klire.

     “This looks terrible,” said Yealla. “I’ve seen better looking Waste Dumps.”

     “Maybe this is where the animals stay,” said Heggic. Heggic looked up toward where the StarShip was. It was gone.

     “I don’t think so,” said Merin. “Look over there. Those look like animals to me. I think.”

     “They are almost as ugly as the ranch,” said Billom. “Do we ride them or take care of them. I don’t want to do either.”

     Just then an elderly couple came running up to them. “You must be the Merin family. My name is Robbel. This is my mate Apiane.”

     “Welcome to our home,” said Apiane. “I know you are going to like it here.

     “Where is the planet Texas? I’ve never heard of it,” said Jicca.

     “Texas isn’t a planet,” said Robbel. “It’s a place on a planet. I don’t know where though.”

     “We bought this property almost thirty years ago,” said Apiane. “It was a dude ranch when we bought it.”

<<<<*>>>>

     The Merin family was very surprised. After a month, that’s forty days on Nillick, the family returned home. Only they didn’t want to do it. They ended up having a lot of fun there, after all – especially after getting used to all the noise at night by the ghosts that lived there.

The End?